EL PRESIDENTE---Doug Liman (THE BOURNE IDENTITY, MR. & MRS. SMITH) will direct this Tom Cruise comedy movie about a squeaky-clean Secret Service agent assigned to protect a womanizing, boozing ex-President after he becomes an assassination target. Cruise, who stars in Liman's upcoming sci fi movie EDGE OF TOMORROW, wants his A FEW GOOD MEN co-star Jack Nicholson, to co-star in EL PRESIDENTE. Cruise and Liman met with Nicholson, who is retired, and told him, "he [Cruise] won't do the movie without him."

SABOTAGE---photo from the movie about an elite DEA team that hits a drug cartel safe house and absconds with the drug money until they are killed off one by one. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington (AVATAR), Terrence Howard (IRON MAN), Max Martini (SAVING PRIVATE RYAN), Olivia Williams (THE SIXTH SENSE) and Mirielle Enos (WORLD WAR Z) star.

STAR WARS: EPISODE VII---it's been confirmed that R2-D2 will appear in the movie. A recent photo showed Lee Towersey and Oliver Steeples of the R2-D2 Builders Club with JJ Abrams and Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy. Towersey and Steeples will build and maintain R2D2 for the movie. Steeples said, "It all started when Kathleen Kennedy toured the R2-D2 Builders area at Celebration Europe this past summer in Germany. She posed for pictures with us, looked at all the droids we'd built and was very complimentary. I mentioned that the R2-D2 Builders in the U.K. were available if required, as a semi-joke. When I was contacted to work on the film by [executive producer] Jason McGatlin, it was on her recommendation."

THE STRAIN---FX ordered 13 episodes of the Guillermo del Toro series about a CDC team battling a vampire plague in New York.

DOCTOR WHO---an online petition by fans wants Steven Moffat to develop a new series featuring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor Who. McGann appeared in the recent prequel short to the 50th anniversary special and appeared as Doctor Who in a 1996 tv movie. McGann said he's interested in the role, "Well, it's like with the mini-episode - if they send you the script and it's good, you'll do it. So, you know, these things are only as good as the material. So the real question is if the material was good enough and if you were available, you'd do it - cos it's a Who!"

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN---photo of Stevie Nicks on the set in which she will play herself in a future episode.

BEETLEJUICE 2---Winona Ryder commented on if she's appearing in the sequel, "I'm kind of sworn to secrecy. But it sounds like it might be happening." Michael Keaton and Tim Burton are reportedly interested in returning also.

FAST AND FURIOUS---Paul Walker commented on the franchise's future, "Well, the studio supposedly wants 8, 9 and 10. I’ll be 50. Even if 7 were to [tank], there’s at least an 8. That’s a guarantee."

THE LAST TYCOON---HBO pilot underway based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel with Billy Ray (CAPTAIN PHILLIPS) as writer/director/producer.

ARROW---Katrina Law (SPARTACUS) will play Nyssa al Ghul, a member of the League of Assassins, daughter of Ra's al Ghul and step-sister of Talia.

NECESSARY ROUGHNESS---USA Network canceled the series.

PARASYTE---two-part movie underway by Toho Company (GODZILLA) based on the comic book about a teenage boy who is infected by an alien parasite. Takashi Yamazaki (SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO) is the director.

THE DEVIL'S ROOMING HOUSE---movie rights to the book about Amy Archer-Gilligan, the first US female serial killer who ran a nursing home and used arsenic to kill its residents. She was the inspiration for ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.

The first time I watched MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE GHOST PROTOCOL, Simon Pegg's character didn't bother me. The second time I watched it, during the hotel scenes, I wanted Jeremy Renner or Paula Patton to fire a bullet into his forehead.

STAR WARS: EPISODE VII---it's been confirmed that R2-D2 will appear in the movie. A recent photo showed Lee Towersey and Oliver Steeples of the R2-D2 Builders Club with JJ Abrams and Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy. Towersey and Steeples will build and maintain R2D2 for the movie. Steeples said, "It all started when Kathleen Kennedy toured the R2-D2 Builders area at Celebration Europe this past summer in Germany. She posed for pictures with us, looked at all the droids we'd built and was very complimentary. I mentioned that the R2-D2 Builders in the U.K. were available if required, as a semi-joke. When I was contacted to work on the film by [executive producer] Jason McGatlin, it was on her recommendation."

Considering R2D2 has shown up in Abrams' two Star Trek movies, and I believe Super 8, it is only fair he show up in a Star Wars film directed by Abrams.

The first time I watched MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE GHOST PROTOCOL, Simon Pegg's character didn't bother me. The second time I watched it, during the hotel scenes, I wanted Jeremy Renner or Paula Patton to fire a bullet into his forehead.

STAR WARS: EPISODE VII---it's been confirmed that R2-D2 will appear in the movie. A recent photo showed Lee Towersey and Oliver Steeples of the R2-D2 Builders Club with JJ Abrams and Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy. Towersey and Steeples will build and maintain R2D2 for the movie. Steeples said, "It all started when Kathleen Kennedy toured the R2-D2 Builders area at Celebration Europe this past summer in Germany. She posed for pictures with us, looked at all the droids we'd built and was very complimentary. I mentioned that the R2-D2 Builders in the U.K. were available if required, as a semi-joke. When I was contacted to work on the film by [executive producer] Jason McGatlin, it was on her recommendation."

Considering R2D2 has shown up in Abrams' two Star Trek movies, and I believe Super 8, it is only fair he show up in a Star Wars film directed by Abrams.

Considering R2-D2 has shown up in every Star Wars feature-length production except the two made-for-TV Ewok movies as well as numerous TV episodes, books, comics, games, theme park attractions, etc., I'd think "it is only fair he show up in a Star Wars film" would have covered it, with or without Abrams. I fully expect C-3PO to be there as well, whatever other characters do or don't make it in.